Jim Beam Bourbon Takes Home SAMMY Award for Online Campaign

September 24, 2009

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Deerfield, Ill. – September 24, 2009 – Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., the leading American spirits company, and Jim Beam Bourbon, the world’s number one selling Bourbon, are proud to announce the brand’s acceptance of a 2009 SAMMY Award for “Best Integrated Social & Cross Media Campaign” for “The Remake” contest. Jim Beam beat out the latest social media campaigns by McDonald’s and Bausch & Lomb during the SAMMY Awards Gala held on Thursday, Sept. 17 at the W Hotel in New York City.

Combining traditional marketing efforts with an innovative social media component, “The Remake” was a user-generated social media contest held from January 2009 through March 2009. Legal purchase age consumers were challenged to create their own video “remakes” by spoofing or improving upon the Jim Beam commercial “The Girlfriend.” The top five scoring video remakes posted for public voting online. The following weights were assigned to the judging score and vote totals: Judging Score (75 percent) and Public Vote (25 percent). On that basis, the judges declared one (1) grand prize winner. The contest had nearly 300 submissions, more than 6,800 online votes, and 3.3 million video views across the Web.

“We are honored to receive a prestigious SAMMY Award for ‘The Remake’ and we extend our congratulations to all entrants and winners,” said Kelly Doss, senior director Bourbons & Whiskeys, Beam Global Spirits & Wine. “Our vision at Beam Global is to build brands people want to talk about and this campaign is a perfect example of how interaction with brands allows consumers to develop relationships with products on levels deeper than mere enjoyment and usage. The most successful campaigns are those that allow consumers to feel connected to the brand and take ownership of it.”

The world of Web 2.0 is not a new playing field for Beam Global. The company has led the spirits industry by effectively executing social media initiatives such as hosting an annual online tasting of new and rare Scotch expressions and streaming live webcasts for Knob Creek Bourbon. Jim Beam launched the first-ever social media press room in the spirits industry and the company utilized Facebook earlier this month to share a Bourbon cocktail survey in honor of National Bourbon Heritage Month. These programs have generated “talkability” among target, legal purchase age consumers.

The annual SAMMY Awards recognize outstanding efforts in the area of social media and advertising and honor groundbreaking work in multiple categories. The SAMMY’s are presented by DM2, the publishers of digiday:DAILY and the hosts of digiday:SOCIAL, which include hundreds of leading social media and marketing experts, journalists, insiders, marketers, publishers and social technology visionaries.